Think of the proverbial flood of data produced by today’s digital oil field not as ones and zeros but as PDF files and JPEG images. The industry has focused so much on managing structured data—the bits and bytes that fit so nicely into databases—almost to the exclusion of the larger unstructured data problem. With drilling, acquisitions and operational momentum on the rise, the looming wave of documents is poised to create an even larger barrier to timely, data-driven E&P decisions.

According to leading IT researcher Gartner, the worldwide data volume is expected to grow by 59% year-over-year with a compound annual growth rate of more than 800% over the next five years. What’s more, 80% of that growth will be from unstructured data like spreadsheets, presentations, photos and email. Consider how that trend is manifesting itself in the data-centric oil and gas business, and Gartner’s forecast might look like an underestimate. Recognizing the well file challenge as a barrier to its growth, Permian operator Parsley Energy is navigating unstructured data complexity supported by new ideas and technology.

Digital documents

Today’s digital document challenge began decades ago in physical storerooms and personal filing cabinets. From land and development to operations and compliance, wells have always generated a wealth of data that have traditionally been compiled into a well file. Thanks to modern digitization technology, physical well files have moved to virtual storerooms. Adding to this volume is the ceaseless digital stream of well-related documents generated every day from staff, vendors and applications across field and corporate offices such as plat records, drilling reports, logs, authorizations for expenditures, invoices, schematics, prognoses and economic forecasts.

Parsley has maintained an aggressive growth profile through sustained development of its premier acreage position in the Midland and southern Delaware basins. Due to its rapid growth, Parsley accumulated more than 50,000 well-related documents, equivalent to 150,000 pages of information, for a growing portfolio of more than 700 wells. Tapping into the full value of this large volume of information became a significant challenge for the operator.

Many E&P companies manage well-related documents on an S-drive, short for shared network drive. However, such file systems are inherently prone to information sprawl, haphazardly organized file folders and inconsistent naming conventions. Well histories spanning years, multiple document versions and incomplete datasets present significant challenges. The result is that a staff often spends hours searching for the right document to support crucial E&P workflows and decisions. In addition, poorly organized digital well information poses a risk to regulatory compliance and can delay time-sensitive mergers and acquisitions.

For the industry in general and Parsley in particular, solving the well file management challenge is less about how to store unstructured data and more about managing data complexity. Despite the large volume of unstructured well data, storage capacity and cost-efficiency continue to outpace data volume growth, which sharpens the focus on smarter ways to discover, sift and search E&P information.

In the cloud

Cloud computing is ideally suited to address the industry’s unstructured data challenge. With its economy of scale and low storage costs, the cloud is meeting the demands of today’s record high unstructured data volume. The cloud also drives data consumption through centralized content management and the ability to access well files and other business data from any connected device.

Several innovations are converging in the cloud to enable a new generation of well file management. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) takes advantage of the cloud’s on-demand storage and computing power, creating new opportunities for resource-intensive applications, including high-speed document processing. Through its on-demand service model, SaaS eliminates the capital expenses associated with traditional servers and software. The SaaS model also accommodates multiple users, avoids the restrictions and cost of traditional end-user licenses and opens up the value of E&P applications to a larger pool of stakeholders.

Archeio Technologies provides oil and gas companies with enhanced capabilities to manage data growth and extract more value from well information through intelligent search and analytics. SkyWell, Archeio’s cloud-based software, also helps operators reduce compliance risks and expedite data onboarding during an acquisition.

Archeio’s approach uses high-speed document processing, machine learning and document classification technologies to add essential context to documents. Because such basic details like well name or American Petroleum Institute number are inconsistently located within a page—a problem magnified by high data volume and complexity—the SaaS developer employs smart algorithms to identify essential data to classify well documents, also known as metadata. By tagging documents with metadata, Archeio enables E&P companies to finally stitch all of their unstructured data together into a common document taxonomy that makes searching for information as easy as using traditional search engines.

Parsley selected Archeio’s cloud-based well file management solution to give more than 130 employees on-demand access to its extensive volume of unstructured well information. The objectives of Parsley’s well file solution include centralizing document management securely in the cloud, providing adequate classification and context for documents and enabling staff to quickly search for relevant and reliable data for all parts of a well or land file.

To achieve these goals, Parsley uses SkyWell’s machine learning technology to convert, tag, classify, load and manage legacy well and land files. Importantly, SkyWell provides a flexible oil and gas industry-specific document taxonomy that lets Parsley enforce minimum metadata standards including county, well name and department.

Leveraging document metadata and smart search options accessible from a PC smart phone or tablet, Parsley’s staff spends less time looking for data and more time on analysis. The well file technology is used to manage 48 high-value data types across Parsley’s drilling, geology, operations, land and regulatory departments. SkyWell also enables users to find well information using an interactive map and features data analytics to provide insight into the data being managed. Most importantly, the operator estimates that E&P decisions are as much as 60% faster due to the enhanced management of well information.

Given the growing unstructured data challenge, SaaS solutions like SkyWell are proving to be increasingly critical to success in the information age for Parsley and its peers in the industry. Solving the unstructured data challenge also translates to lower risk and faster decision cycle time across business functions. Acquisition of oil and gas assets, for example, poses a massive data onboarding and file management challenge to buyers that often delays the process as staff hunt for data to understand asset integrity. The ability to quickly sort, high-grade and intelligently search through large volumes of well data accelerates the acquisitions and divestitures process, enabling smoother transitions and minimizing well downtime.

Powered by the cloud and smart search technologies, intelligent well file management is shaping up in the industry. Even as unstructured data volume and complexity soar, new well information management technologies are well positioned to reduce costs, boost operational efficiency, fuel more informed decisions and sharpen competitive edge.

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